• by Bill McCloskey , May 3, 2006

Today I downloaded the new beta version of Internet Explorer. As you have probably read, Google's panties are in a twist because Microsoft has embedded a search bar in the browser that goes by default to MSN search. Microsoft says Google has misinterpreted their motives, and there is nothing to be concerned about... (yeah, right). The good news is that Microsoft can now save money on PR by recycling old press releases, doing a search and replace on words like Netscape and AOL.

I can see why Google may be worried. I liked the search button, and it will probably (forget probably, it will) replace Google as my main search engine. At this stage in Internet history, I figure most search engines are basically the same, the only difference being the ads that appear along with the results, so I'll use the one that's easier for me to use. I suspect a lot of other folks are in the same boat.

As I do with any new search engine, the first thing I did was type in my own name. One cool feature is that the results screen offered me the option of searching for my name on RSS feeds.

Good Golly, Miss Molly! There was my name dragged through the blogosphere mud as a result of my recent "E-mail Insider" articles on RSS.

Chris Redlitz, president of Feedster, called my first article "one of the most ignorant statements I have seen in my years of developing emerging technology (and advertising) platforms."

Yikes! Based on all the blathering I've heard in my 10 years of "developing emerging technology (and advertising) platforms," I have to take that as quite an accomplishment on my part! Have we forgotten Michael Tchong's Web Attack so soon?!

Other bloggers accused me of being paranoid; one called me an ESP who is obviously worried about my business, and the other general comments fell along the lines of being clueless, an idiot, out of step, doesn't get it, etc. You know, the kind of thing they threw at Warren Buffett when he missed out on the '90s Internet bubble.

These bloggers, for the most part, have one thing in common: a vested interest in the future of RSS as an advertising medium. In nearly every case where I have been attacked, the poster has an RSS product, service, book, newsletter, or blog for sale.

More revealing, at least as far as I'm concerned, were the e-mails I received from those who have no interest in RSS, other than hoping it will be a good source of revenue. For those folks, the following response was more typical:

"Bill, I have to agree with you, well, mostly. We offer a number of RSS feeds from our Web sites, and I offer RSS feeds from my own forums. In both cases, RSS provides some additional traffic, generated by our content being available on other Web sites. That said, the conversions to revenue are pretty unimpressive. I do think RSS may become more popular as the browsers offer built-in readers by default, and as you pointed out, marketers are experimenting with marketing within their RSS feeds. But...overall I have yet to be convinced it's the 'next big thing.'"

Here's another:

"Bill--TOTALLY agree. On the issue of RSS, I was a little like I was in my single, childless days: I knew everything about raising children before I had them. In other words, I was a huge RSS proponent before I had a new blog to promote and realized the complexity of the issue. Truly: nothing replaces e-mail as a delivery tool."

And as far as RSS threatening my business, nothing could be further from the truth. My company monitors marketing messages sent via push technology. Today that means, basically, e-mail. But our charter is to monitor all push technology, including RSS feeds. The success of RSS represents a business opportunity, so I hope I'm wrong even more than my detractors. Trust me, when and if RSS takes off as an advertising medium, I'll be there to monitor and report on it.